It's one of the best pictures I've seen of a race in a long time. I did not take it. And, frankly, the beauty of the picture offers a much warmer feeling than what I was experiencing at that point in Saturday's F^3 Lake Half Marathon. Warmth was not part of it!

Suffice to say, I was pretty happy to finish in one piece. At about the 7 mile mark, I was pretty sure my frozen cheeks were about to fall off. As about 11, when we passed pretty close to the finish line before making 2 mile loop, I gave serious thought to taking a shortcut to the finish line.

It was cold. Check. It was icy. Check. It was windy. Check. Yes, that's what the F3 Lake half marathon is all about. Organizers had to change the course overnight before the race because the high winds created huge snow drifts onto major sections of the lakefront path. Their adjustments maanged to avoid snow drifts, but not big icy spots and a few snowy patches.

But if you're going to run a half marathon in Chicago in January, what do you expect? This is what people sign up for. Some might call us crazy. They might be right.

For some odd reason, I have run pretty good times at this race the last couple years. But as I lined up Saturday, I knew this was not going to be a similar experience. That was confirmed in the first mile, which was run over what seemed like one long stretch of 'black ice'.

Surprisingly, that was the only major icy part of the course. We slogged through snow, and avoided muddy puddles in various areas of the course, but there was not much ice other than in that first mile stretch, which also served as the last mile.

So, the footing was challenging. But the wind was probably a more difficult obstacle. I realized the wind was at my back from about the second mile until we turned around at the halfway point at Oak st. Beach. That meant most of the final half of the race was run into the biting wind. That's when I felt the freeze on my cheeks. Amd that's when I began praying for it to be over!

I gave some half-heated thought to dropping out. But I really couldn't justfiy it. What would be my excuse? That I was cold? Yeah, so were the dozens of volunteers handing out water and cheering on the runners. And really, Saturday was the warmest day in quite a few in our seemingly endless Arctic winter.

It was also the first race of the season for me. I did pin a number on, but I didn't really treat it like a race. More of a survival test. But I really like this event, and the history behind it. In just five years it has gone from a couple dozen friends deciding to run 13.1 miles on the lakefront pathfrom one of their apartments to about 2000 runners wearing timing chips on their numbers, and getting finisher's medals that double as beer bottle openers..Apparently there are enough crazy people like them (and me) to support a race like this. And after finishing a dozen half marathons last year, It felt pretty familiar to me to jump in another one this month. I don't intend to run 12 of them this year, but I will do several. And this one seems to be a good diversion in an otherwise pretty extreme winter.

My finishing time was pretty irrelevant, but it was under two hours anyway. More importatly, I got out there and finished. And it was fun. I survived without injury, earned a medal that doubles as a bottle opener, and put up a finishing time that I should have no trouble beating later this spring. It was a nice way to start the 2014 season!

I love running. Ice skating, not so much. The last time I tried ice skating with my daughter's class, I wiped out and took out the instructor with me. It was not my proudest moment, nor my then 8 year old daughter's.

Unfortunately Saturday morning was a great morning for ice skating. Running, not so much. Knowing there was still a lot of snow on the ground and with the warmer temperatures, much of it had melted and then re-froze overnight, we anticipated problems with footing. We really wanted to get our weekend long run in though, so we decided to try the prairie path in Elmhurst, and if that was too slippery, we would run on the roads instead.

It seemed to be a solid plan. But, we quickly discovered that the prairie path was filled with giant puddles and lots of patches of almost invisible ice. It was better suited for ice skates. So we got off the path after a mile or so and moved to the roads. Usually, crews have laid down some salt to help get rid of the ice.

That was not the case Saturday. Even wearing Yax Trax (the equivalent of snow tires), we were gingerly running along very slowly trying to keep from slipping and falling.

I've seen several articles recently with tips for winter running. And I've been doing this long enough that I could offer plenty of tips myself. But these conditions were about the most unfavorable for running I have ever seen. So after about 5 miles of frustration on this morning, the best tip my friend Tom and I could offer was to quit, and get some coffee!

I later heard that most other groups who had gone out that morning had similar experiences. Most had also given up early. But they also had the same desire to get in a longer run over the weekend, so many of them decided to give it another try on Sunday morning.

That worked for me! In fact, it turned out to be a really nice group run with lots of friends I haven't had the chance to run with for a while. We met at the same spot as the day before, but one more day of mild temperatures made a huge difference, and the roads were much better, with very few slick spots.

My friend Stephanie called it the 'Take 2' run, and I told her I was going to steal that for the title of this blog entry. So here it is. It ended up being a good run for me at a faster than usual pace, and a little longer distance than I might have gone otherwise. Sometimes things work out well even when they don't seem headed that direction initially.

So if there's a lesson to be gained from this experience, I suppose it's that if you are flexible in your training, it will probably work out fine in the end. Oh, and runners who aren't good ice skaters should probably stick to their best sport!

It's 9 am New Year's day, and I've been up for a while, shaking off the previous night's celebration. I'm in the most familiar of places, out on a run.

The start of a new year means many things to many people. It's been a year of transition in my personal life, and one for plenty of reflection. And there's no better place for that than on a run. So that's where I was, with a few dozen of my friends from the Elmhurst Running Club.

It's the time of year when gyms are full of newly resolutioned workout fanatics. They will probably last a couple weeks or so. Many of us who enjoyed a little too much holiday cheer are finding it necessary to work a little of it off. We have set goals for the new year, and 'getting in shape' is near the top of the list once again.

It's also fun to look back at the past year of running, and to look ahead to the coming year. I want to celebrate accomplishments, and set new goals. And I seem to have noticed an extra pound or two that might be directly attributable to some of that affore-mentioned holiday cheer. So there's that to deal with.

But it all comes together nicely on New Year's day with what has become a tradition for me. The Elmhurst Running Club has a fun run/pot luck breakfast, It's a way to kick off the new year with a great group of friends doing the things we love: Running and eating!

I have a lot of racing and running to reflect on from the past year. I have already written about accomplishing my goal of running a half marathon for every month of last year. It was a satisfying experience, and I learned from it. You can't really ask for more than that.

There were also a few races other than half marathons that were memorable. But this year, none were more memorable than the three slowest races I participated in all year. Those were the ones I did with my daughters. Those are the kind of family memories that my girls and I will be talking about years from now. And there might be nothing more important I can do as a runner than pass along my love of the sport to my children. I expect as the years progress, and they gain on me, these will be some of my faster races as I chase them!

But all of us have memorable experiences good and bad from the past year. My friend Jorge (pictured above) is still recovering and enjoying the 'after glow' of his recent Ironman Triathlon. Several of my friends have done these, and my hat is off to them. Some people think I'm crazy. I think they are crazy!

Crazy is good though. And it's best when it's shared with good friends, like those who I enjoyed the festivities with on New Year's morning.